Anyone have experience using audio interfaces with the new Macbook Pros? Just realized I’m gonna have to either replace my MOTU Ultralite 3 with firewire or buy a nearly as expensive USB/firewire hub, both of which seem like shitty options. And on top of that, the new Ultralite (mk 4) uses USB 2, which seems like a bad investment seeing as everything is pointing towards Thunderbolt 3 these days.
Any suggestions?
No problem with USB 2 IMO. I use it for from my MOTU 16A to 2016 MBP with 32 channels of audio and it works just fine.
Agreed.
But if you are buying a new interface, and your have a Thunderbolt Mac, might as well get a Thunderbolt interface and take advantage of the lower latency operation.
I use a (now outdated) Apple Thunderbolt Display, connected via the apple adapter (TB3 to TB2).
The display serves also as a hub, in essence driving both my iConnect Audio 4+ USB interface, and my Apogee Ensemble Firewire. Works very well for now - as long as the Apogee drivers work with the current version of MacOS (no longer officially supported, but I will deal with that issue only when it becomes one).
Hi,
I am pretty sure USB is native for Thunderbolt 3, which means thunderbolt is now fully backward compatible with USB 2&3 interfaces. All you need is a cable adaptator wich won’t cost you much (as opposed to thunderbolt 2 cables!).
Concerning audio interfaces and latencies, you can achive low latency on a usb or firewire interface if your interface drivers are great.
For example, I can have a rock solid 4ms roundtrip latency @48KHz on my babyface pro connected to usb and my PC.
I can even reach a 2.6ms roundtrip on my macbook pro 15 mid 2015, RME runing @192Khz.
on this computer (thunderbolt 2) i also tried to run a RME fireface 802, with a thunderbolt 2 to firewire cable. works pefectly.
I think thunderbolt 2 interfaces can be a LITTLE faster, but these connectors are already outdated, now that thunderbolt 3 merged with usb. so i think the better choice is to take a usb interface or wait for proper thunderbolt 3 interfaces if you want top notch latencies.
For now good old usb2 is not dead! i wouldn’t bet the same for firewire or thunderbolt 2.
Also, my feeling nowadays is that audio interface manufs are stepping up their game wrt the analog circuits of their products. This will result in a “healthier” sound no doubt. Audient turned heads pretty good with their iD series boards and my feeling is that the new boards will try to catch up. The conversion chips are already about as good as can be, so improving the analog side is the next logical focus.
Summa summarum = go with the new interfaces
its worth mentioning that RME interfaces are extremely well designed and have superb software to go with it… they are sort of in a class all their own, so I probably wouldnt lump them in with other interfaces… I owned a Fireface for quite a while, as well as others from focusrite, mackie, zoom, motu and maudio - and the RME utterly smashed competing interfaces in pretty much every way
back on topic - I would also suggest going for a thunderbolt interface of some kind… latency is crazy low, but also there is more bandwidth for higher counts of audio tracks as well, which should theoretically contribute to more stable playback as well (i.e less jitter, etc)
Apollo UAD works a charm